Beginning life in 1998, Kidneythieves has remained just under the radar of the underground music scene thanks to an enticing mix of trip-hop style melody and texture with guitar-driven industrial rock. After the release of their second album, Zerøspace in 2002, during which time they opened for KMFDM on the Strum & Drang tour and appeared on several film and television soundtracks, and the 2004 rerelease of their debut album, Tricksterprocess, the duo of Free Dominguez and Bruce Somers went on an indefinite hiatus to pursue other projects and leaving a void for the band’s fans. While the band reformed three years later, it would be another three years after that before the release of the third Kidneythieves album, TryptOfanatic.

Right from the get-go, Dominguez’s vocals play against a scratchy guitar chug, at once sensuously melodic and irreverently aggressive before erupting into an explosive chorus in “Jude (Be Somebody).” The remainder of the album follows suit with the rocking energy of “Beg” on which Dominguez shouts, “Goddamn, could you feel an emotion?” with all the rage of a jilted lover, while “Dead Girl Walking” plays with an appropriately ghostly ambience juxtaposed with pleasantly placed breakbeats and distorted harmonic guitars, Dominguez’s voice always hinging on bursting into a shout that thankfully never happens. Somers demonstrates his mastery of production and performance throughout, the guitars never overtaking the dynamics of the electronics as each layer plays in perfect unison, the percussion always playing a balance of frantic bravado and tasteful restraint. This is especially true on “Lick U Clean” as the verses drop into a sparse musical backdrop of stabs of synths and bombastic beats, allowing the intensity of Dominguez’s vocals to shine through. “Freeky People” is perhaps the most anthemic track on the album, a marching beat and guitar riff underplaying Dominguez’s lyrics celebrating the diversity within each of us and declaring proudly “This is the time of our lives!”

Released via the band’s own website, there is nary a weak moment on TryptOfanatic as each song assaults the listener with pure energy and force, the final track, “Tears on a Page” softening things up for a tearjerker conclusion that is sheer elegiac beauty. It’s as if the eight-year-long gap since Zerøspace never happened, and while some might interpret that as a lack of growth, few bands in the underground manage to establish a sound and style identifiable as their own. If nothing else, TryptOfanatic is not only a return to form but also a sign of Kidneythieves devotion to their craft and their signature style of tripped out industrial rock.

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